Golden Colorado (4 page)

Minnie watched in amazement as the horse wiggled its fuzzy lips and gently took the carrot from James, crunching on it loudly. Then the mare nuzzled her nose against James’ chest.

“She wants another one,” he said with a grin, glancing down at Minnie. “Do you want to give it to her?”

At first Minnie wanted to shake her head and say no, but James was looking at her with such a sense of pride and encouragement. She nodded. He dipped his hand into his pocket, and, keeping his fists clenched, placed the carrot bit into her hand.

“When you feed it to her, keep your fingers flat and pressed together. That way she won’t mistake your fingers for food.”

Minnie glanced up at him in alarm, and he smiled. “Don’t worry. No matter what you feed her, carrots, apple bits, whatever, if you give it to her with your fingers flat, she won’t bite you on accident.”

Minnie clenched the carrot in her palm for several moments, working up her courage. She assumed that the mare smelled the carrot in her hand though, because she turned her attention from James to her. To her surprise, the mare gently nuzzled her chest. The horse weighed probably a thousand pounds, at least to Minnie, but she knew that the mare wasn’t trying to hurt her. She just wanted the carrot.

Slowly, Minnie lifted her hand, opened her fingers, and held her palm underneath the mare’s mouth. The mare’s lips reached for the carrot and wiggled. Minnie giggled as the hairs on the horse’s muzzle tickled her hand. To her delight, the horse snatched up the carrot, only leaving behind a thin trail of slobber. She looked down, realized that she still had all her fingers, and grinned up at James in delight, asking, “Do you have another one?”

He laughed and hugged her close, making her feel warm all over. “I think you’d better give a piece to the other one, don’t you agree?”

Minnie did, and since then she had learned how to brush down the horses, keeping one hand on the horse’s croup or rump as she rounded their backsides to avoid being kicked.

A week later, she had learned how to milk the cow. Watching James and his gentleness with the animals made her feel even more affectionate toward him, and her own bravery at overcoming her fears gave her a huge sense of pride in herself. James was learning patience, and she was gaining self-confidence. Before long, they were sharing conversations deep into the night, lying together on their makeshift straw bed.

The nights grew colder, but to her surprise, the barn was warmer than the soddy, for now. Still, she worried about another fire. They would need to light a fire soon to stay warm at night, wouldn’t they?

After broaching that question with James, she had been surprised that once again when he nodded in agreement. An open campfire in the barn filled with straw was definitely not a good idea. One day he told her he needed to go into town, but wouldn’t be gone long, and certainly back by the midday meal.

Minnie busied herself in the barn, brave enough now to muck the stalls and put down a clean bed of hay for the horses and the cow. She even began to talk to them, and though they didn’t answer back, she was feeling so much more comfortable. She still grieved over the fact that she couldn’t bear children, but she had come a long way since she had first arrived in Colorado.

She had learned that she could deal with most anything now. She wondered what her friend Florence would think if she could see her as she was, living in a barn with animals. She laughed. She decided that the next time James went into town she would ask him to buy her a tablet of paper and a pencil so that she could write a letter her old friend.

Minnie was preparing a cold lunch when she heard the wagon pull into the yard. She ventured outside of the barn as James pulled the wagon to a halt in front of the small structure, his eyes shining with excitement. He gestured over his shoulder, and she looked at the tall object covered with a tarp that he had strapped down with rope into the back of the wagon.

“What is it?”

He hopped down with a grin. “Close your eyes,” he said playfully.

She laughed and did so. The laugh surprised her. It was the first one that she had allowed herself since the devastating news regarding her barren state. She realized that she was healing emotionally, and God was making her stronger.

She did as James asked and closed her eyes. She heard him untying the ropes, and then the sound of the canvas tarp being pulled away.

“Okay, look,” he said.

She stared in amazement at the small, cast iron, wood-burning stove sitting so prettily in the back of the wagon. “Oh!” She looked to James, saw his prideful grin, and then quickly gave him a hug.

“It’s got space enough for four skillets and a panel on the side on which you can heat an iron or keep food warm. We can put it at the back of the barn near the tack room, and I can cut a hole in the roof for the smokestack. When we get moved into the big house, I’ll simply patch the roof.”

Tears brimmed in Minnie’s eyes. Now she didn’t have to worry about freezing to death. The wood-burning stove would be a safe way to heat the barn, as well as cook throughout the winter.

She glanced from the stove, to the ground, and then back at James. “You’re going to need help getting that down off the wagon bed you know,” she said.

He laughed and nodded, gesturing toward the hill as another rider topped it. “I know, and that’s why I asked Joe from the Mercantile to come help.”

Minnie was flabbergasted. James had
actually
asked for help from someone rather than insisting on doing it alone. She was both impressed and pleased.

Thanksgiving came and went, and soon winter came in full to the Rockies. Snow fell, then melted, and then, two weeks before Christmas, nearly a foot of snow fell around Golden. Minnie didn’t really mind, as she kept nice and warm inside the barn. Actually, she had gotten quite used to the sights, sounds, and smells of the animals, and she even pitched in whenever James needed help. He had also set up what she called his invention table in the corner of the barn near the wood stove, and at night he used a lantern for light. They were careful to keep the straw or any flammable objects well away from the perimeter of the stove or lantern.

During those long nights when they listened to the wind blow outside, James and Minnie talked. She finally told him about the fire that had killed her family and consumed the only home she had ever known. He understood now why she was so concerned about fire, and bent over backwards to make sure that she knew that they were safe in the barn, despite their close quarters to the stove.

James ventured out several times during those weeks to chop enough firewood to last them through the winter. He took the team out in the morning came back in the afternoon, most times frozen nearly solid, trace chains and hooks pulling one log at a time back to the barn. He chopped the wood and stacked it against the side of the charred wall of the house. He spent hours at this, a backbreaking and laborious chore, but by the middle of December he had a good supply gathered. He covered it with a tarp, but brought in at least two days’ supply at a time to store in the barn to ensure that it stayed dry.

One day, a week before Christmas, in the midst of a snowstorm that shows no signs of ending, James turned to Minnie.

“I need to go into town. We’re running low on supplies. The weather is only going to get worse, and we need to have enough to get us at least through the New Year.”

By this time Minnie had grown incredibly fond of James. “You’re not going alone,” she had replied.

“Minnie, it’s too dangerous—”

“You’re
not
going alone,” she stated emphatically, stamping her foot on the ground to make her point.

James had learned not to argue with her when she literally put her foot down. He grinned down at her, affection shining in his eyes as she stared up at him, her chin jutting forward, her hands on her hips, as if daring him to refute her.

He didn’t. With a sigh of acquiescence, he nodded. “Put on your heaviest dress, get my old coat, and grab the blankets off of our bed,” he ordered. As she gathered the necessary belongings, he put the horses into their harness, then ventured outside to hook them up to the wagon. In the brief moment that the doors were open to let the horses out, Minnie felt the bitter cold of the winter wind. For a second she almost changed her mind. Then, she decided against it.

Making sure that only glowing embers remained in the wood stove, she double-checked to make sure that everything was secure and safe in the barn, then followed him outside with the blankets.

James hitched up the horses as quickly as possible, helped her into the wagon, and then climbed up too, sitting close beside her. She relished his heat, quickly wrapping one blanket around their legs, tucking it in underneath their bottoms, and the other she draped around their shoulders. She didn’t have gloves, but James did, which was good because he had to keep his hands exposed to hold the reins. She kept her hands wrapped in the blanket she clasped tightly around their shoulders.

Then knitted cap she wore over her head barely kept out the wind. She had wrapped a scarf around her face, leaving only her eyes exposed, and James had tied his hat down onto his head with a neckerchief, covering his ears. Nevertheless, they were nearly frozen solid by the time they reached the outskirts of town. It was fairly deserted and quiet, the way it always was when the snow fell, and the wind whistled in gusts.

James directed the rig over to the Mercantile, and then pulled up alongside it in an effort to block the horses from the wind. He quickly climbed out of the wagon, groaning when his nearly frozen feet made contact with the ground. He hurried around to Minnie’s side, clasped her waist, and lifted her down, barely allowing her to put her feet on the ground until she reached the porch in front of the Mercantile. Together they walked inside, relishing the heat that immediately surrounded them.

Allen, the owner of the Mercantile, and his wife Jennifer, both standing behind the counter, looked up in surprise.

“Oh!” Jennifer gasped, rushing toward them.

She grasped Minnie’s arm and guided her close to the cast-iron stove in the middle of the room, nearly glowing red with its heat, exclaiming, “You must be frozen solid!”

After she had settled Minnie and James into two chairs they pulled up as close to the stove as they dared, she bustled behind the counter and through a door to their living quarters, promising them hot tea in just a few moments.

His hand shaking with cold, James reached into his pocket and silently handed Allen a scrap of paper with a list of supplies they needed.

“You couldn’t have picked a worse day to head into town,” Allen commented.

Minnie held her breath, wondering how James was going to respond. To her surprise, her husband laughed in full agreement. “Don’t I know it! But there’s no telling how long the storm will last, or if it’ll let up all winter at all. I figured we’d better get in and get our supplies before the roads became impassable.”

Minutes later, while Allen prepared boxes to put their supplies in, Jennifer reappeared with two cups of tea for Minnie and James. They made polite conversation for several minutes, and then Minnie saw Jennifer capture her husband’s attention. Her husband looked at her, nodded, and then stopped packing the supplies. He cleared his throat and then approached the two.

“James, Minnie,” he said. “I know you two have been dealing with a few setbacks, what with the barn and… well other things.”

In small towns like Golden, gossip traveled like wildfire. Minnie knew what they were talking about, and although she wasn’t sure
how
they had found out, she knew that the kind couple was also speaking about her difficulty to have children. She felt the heat of a blush travel up her shoulders, all the way up her neck, and into her cheeks. Jennifer placed a friendly, comforting hand on her arm.

“We have some news, Minnie, that might interest you,” she ventured. She darted a glance at James and nodded. “You too, James.”

“What is it?” James asked.

“You know Jacob Shuler and his wife Maria, right?”

James nodded, as did Minnie. They had met the couple a time or two at church services before the weather had gotten too cold. The first time they’d met was just after Minnie had learned she was barren. She couldn’t help but be jealous when she had seen Maria, obviously pregnant, at church.

“You haven’t been in town for a while, so I don’t think you’ve heard,” Jennifer began.

“Heard what?” James asked, glancing at her over his cup of tea as he took a welcome sip.

“Maria gave birth several weeks ago—”

Minnie gasped, nearly choking on the tea she had just swallowed. How could God be so cruel? To leave her barren and yet grace Maria with the privilege of bearing children?

“She had triplets,” Allen continued, his voice somber. “Boys”

Minnie’s heart clenched in pain. Three boys? All at once? Tears brimmed in her eyes. She felt ashamed by the burst of envy that surged through her, but
why
was Jennifer telling her this? She knew it wasn’t to be cruel.

“It’s good to hear,” James began graciously. “Jacob should be right proud—”

Allen shook his head. “Marie died in childbirth,” he said somberly.

Minnie gasped, shame surging through her again. Oh Lord. Poor Marie. Poor Jacob! Those poor babies!

“The thing is, Jacob can’t deal with it. He can hardly bear to look at the babies,” Jennifer said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Oh, it’s not like he blames them for Marie’s death, but he can’t separate one from the other. He’s heartbroken.” She shook her head sadly. “He hired a wet nurse, but…”

Minnie’s eyes widened. “What are you saying, Jennifer?”

Allen explained. “Jacob is planning on taking the babies to Denver and placing them in an orphanage.”

Minnie gasped.

“He’s going to go back home to North Carolina afterwards.”

“He’s going to leave his babies behind?” Minnie asked, her voice filled with dismay.

Allen nodded. “He doesn’t know how to take care of one baby, let alone three. Plus, with his work as a blacksmith, he wouldn’t be able to watch over them well enough.”